Posts for lee

I didn’t believe for a moment that the Phillies were going to trade Cliff Lee, if only because, last time, doing so proved to be such a mistake. But it was one of our favorite (ignored) rumors from the men whose job it is to throws gobs of shit at a wall to create interest in something that largely isn’t there (we, too, do this during free agent signing periods… so yeah, I’m calling that kettle black).

The Phillies plan to keep Cliff Lee, and won't trade him before the Tuesday trade deadline, sources say.

One person with ties to the Phillies said team higherups believe trading Lee would potentially undo most or all the good that was done by extending Cole Hamels and that the team's plan is to build around its trio of great starters, including also Roy Halladay, next year. The Phillies also gave themselves an outside chance this year with their riveting three-game sweep of the fading Brewers.

I can’t tell you how much it injures my soul to watch this MLB Fan Cave-staged promo video of an increasingly maligned Cliff Lee (and his cute kids) awkwardly pledging his allegiance to the All-Star team he’s not on. But hey, at least Jackson is optimistic about the Phillies’ chances: “Because my dad likes home field advantage.”

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The Sixers drafted St. John's freshman Maurice Harkless last night. Like any 15th overall selection, he’s talented enough to have a high-upside, but has enough question marks (in this case, strength and shooting) to not warrant a top-ten pick. That’s fine. But what’s not fine is the fact that THE SIXERS KEEP DRAFTING THE SAME PLAYER. Stop me if you’ve heard of these guys before– Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Evan Turner. All at various points in their careers, those three players all play that swingy, 2-to-3 position, which is exactly what Harkless projects to be: a small forward.

For once, I agree with what John Smallwood wrote this morning: [Philly.com]

I admit, I was confused by the Harkless pick. The scouting skinny on Harkless is that he is great athlete, attacks the rim and is great in the open court. His weaknesses include an inconsistent perimeter shot and some issues with ballhandling.

I was seeing not only Young, but also Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner.

Even with Thorn talking about Harkless' "growth plate" and saying that he might eventually be able to play power forward, his selection alone raised more questions than answers.

Legitimate big men were still on the board when the Sixers picked, including North Carolina power forward Tyler Zeller (7 feet, 250), St. Bonaventure power forward Andrew Nicholson (6-9, 240), Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger (6-9, 280), and Syracuse center Fab Melo (7 feet, 274). All seemed better suited to fill an immediate need for the Sixers.

That was quite similar to what CBS Sports NBA writer Matt Moore wrote: [CBSSports.com]

This was somewhat baffling because the Sixers have guys at his position — Andre Iguodala andThaddeus Young. Harkless is young and will take some time to develop, but he's got a chance to be a quality starter in the league. He's long, rebounds well and can also get to the basket and finish. He can be brought along slowly, but the reward could be tremendous.

If you’re wondering why the Sixers, a team that already has a few tweeners in the 6-6 to 6-9 height range (among them Andre Iguodala, Thad Young and Evan Turner), you aren’t alone. Unless, that is, you have a cushy national TV gig, at which point you evidently loved the pick. When the selection was made, one of the ESPN talking heads said the Sixers needed to “get better inside” and “they did that tonight.”

I suspect you can find similar reviews everywhere. Now, if the Sixers have a move up their sleeve, one that will get rid of one of their swing players and land a legitimate big man or a top-flight guard (which neither Turner nor Jrue Holiday are at this point), then we’ll change our tune. For now, though? Why?

Doug Collins tried to answer that question in an email sent by the team, calling Harkless: A terrific athlete with tremendous upside.

Stop the music, stop it right now. A mid-first round NBA draft pick that’s athletic and has upside?! Someone call Jay Bilas. He needs to see this.

The Sixers also traded for the Heat's 27th pick, Arnett Moultrie. In the second round, they added some monster from the Republic of Georgia that no one has ever heard of.

The guy from the Delco Times sort of liked the move for Moultrie: [Delco Times]

The Sixers handed over one of their second-round picks and a promissory note for a perfectly non-lottery first-round selection next year. Miami, meanwhile, selected Mississippi State power forward Arnett Moultrie — at 6-11, a true low-post player and physical force — when he dropped to No. 27 and passed him along to the Sixers.

It was precisely what the Sixers needed as they ready themselves for the July 1 start of free agency. At the moment they have eight players under contract: the two rookies, Young, Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, Jrue Holiday, Elton Brand and Nick Vucevic. They are confident they will get something done with Lavoy Allen. That’s nine.

We'll see.

Staff Infection

No sense in talking about the Phillies other than listing the pitchers that have have taken the mound in the last two days: Kyle Kendrick, Brian Sanches, Jeremy Horst, Raul Valdes, Joe Savery, Michael Schwimer, Jake Diekman, Chad Qualls and Antonio Bastardo.

Are you still wondering why 11 runs in two games weren’t enough for a win?

Cliff Lee pitches tonight, and it would be really swell if he could find some consistency and make that $125 million contract worth it for the top-heavy, over-relying on five guys, no-depth, mis-transacted and poorly constructed Phillies.

Homer’s Gun

NHL free agency begins on Sunday, and Paul Holmgren is likely going to hurt himself or someone else. Our running commentary will pick up once Sunday rolls around. We probably jumped the gun a bit on putting in live on Tuesday, but we’ll feature it once things pick up.

Quizzo

Congrats to My Couch Pulls Out… I Don’t on their Will Ferrell quizzo victory last night at Drinker’s:

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Lee, who was scheduled to pitch last night before a nearly three-hour rain delay ruined his (and the fans’) evening, was not happy with the decision to not call the game earlier, calling it "a major mistake."

The Phils are in a tough spot. They are in the midst of the best stretch in team history (five straight division titles, two pennants, one title). They want to honor that run and the full houses they get each game at Citizens Bank Park by continuing to go for it. But to get there they have had to strip their farm system while elevating the age of their major league roster. They need a mechanism to get younger while still contending.

They could contend without Lee if Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Halladay get healthy/productive (remember, they won it all in 2008 with just one unquestioned ace in Hamels). And they can’t win even with Lee if that trio does not rediscover close to their peak form. But either way the Phillies would be best served with an injection of talented youth that Lee could bring in a trade.

His expense might scare away some teams, and he has been on the disabled list in each of the last two seasons for abdominal/oblique injuries. But he is 33, not 38. He’s proven he can thrive in both leagues, a tough market and the playoffs.

None of his points are even close to wrong and, honestly, I agree with everything he wrote. But this is the way trade rumors get started. It goes from this would be a good move to hey, are the Phillies trading Lee to the Yankees? to the Yankees are about to get Lee… all because a columnist was having a slow day…

…

Hmm.

Actually, yeah, let’s talk about this.

The fact that we’re here – seriously entertaining the notion of trading Lee – is a bit sad. When Lee signed with the Phillies in 2010, my initial reaction – if even for just a split second – was oh my God, where are they getting this money? That was quickly replaced by fuck yes! and me almost breaking my ankle jumping up from my computer (really).

And, after that, we all celebrated the deal for the next 10 months until Lee blew a 4-0 lead to the Cardinals.

Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction, some dude once said. And that’s often the case when sports teams experience an embarrassment of riches. The tide quickly shifts from fortune to misfortune. The Phillies had two, maybe three years to make the pitching thing work. But Roy Oswalt quickly becoming old, injuries to Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Roy Halladay, and Ruben Amaro’s inability to assemble a balanced baseball team have put the Phillies in an unfortunate position earlier than they expected: Their window is dangerously close to slamming shut, the master plan seems to be ruined after Year 1, and huge contracts to Lee and Howard likely mean that they can’t re-sign Cole Hamels.

So here we are, talking about trading Lee, who, just over a year ago, was to go down as the most beloved athlete in the city’s history. The sad part is almost none of this is his fault. Sure, he’s hocked up a few leads, but he’s mostly pitched well, often streaming excellence for four or five starts at a time. He makes a lot of money, though (less than he would have made elsewhere…), and it would probably make sense for the Phillies to free up that money to sign Hamels, a pitcher who is five years younger and just now entering the point of his career that saw a guy like Lee win a Cy Young and dominate two postseasons.

Of course, if the Phillies weren’t 900 games out of first right now, we wouldn’t care about those things.

I’m offended by Ty Wigginton’s decision to wear a Phillies fleece in public. Also, I imagine Hunter leaning over the boat railing and plunging into the water head-first, excitedly grabbing at the first fish he sees instead of waiting patiently for the larger fish to arrive. But hey, at least he didn’t spike this creature to shortstop after the photo was taken. At least, we don’t think he did.

– The Eagles PR apparatus continues with their push to make Andy Reid seem human. Reid will be doing a chat on Philly.com at 3 p.m. You won’t want to miss that. I have it at 6:1 that he uses at least one emoticon. He seems like a surprising emoticon user. Don’t know why. I have a feel for these things.

– Indians closer Chris Perez got the save yesterday, then he threw up. On the field.

– Well hello, friends. Gorgeous day today on the front nine at Pebble Beach, where I’m going to marry my 33-year-old girlfriend and Tom Brady is going to attend. There’s not a conflict of interest at all there. None at all. Now watch as I line up for the kiss. A smooch for the ages. Nantz getting in someone’s pants!

– Jillian Mele’s Twitter, a celebration of single, perky-titted local TV personalities, is a gift to humanity and aligns perfectly with NBC 10’s new strategy of putting as many attractive reporters on-air as possible, betting that you won’t notice what they’re saying. It’s working, so far.

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Cliff Lee once again took the mound in June – a month in which he won five games last year – and, once again, he was excellent.

7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 12 K, 1 BB

His pitch chart? Special:

At one point, Lee struck out seven out of nine batters, part of a stretch from the fourth to seventh inning in which he struck out nine of 12 (video here– for real, you should watch it). At some point, I went upstairs for a moment and noticed that my Lee bobblehead, which had just been added to the collection of injured misfits in my office, was bobbling. Here’s the problem: no one had been in the room for about three hours. There was a puddle of urine on my desk, meaning either a squirrel got into the room or the figure had pissed excellence all over my office. I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but something magical was happening and I wasn’t going to mess with it. I shut the door and went back downstairs.

It didn’t matter, though. Lee ran out of steam (stream?) and gave up a two-run double to Jackie Robinson lookalike Elian Herrera in the eighth. Juan Pierre could have caught the ball on what would have been a spectacular play, but his glove was two feet right of the mark, like a blind guy playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey. And in this scenario, it was Lee who the Phillies made an ass out of. He remains winless and became the first pitcher to lose despite throwing 92 strikes since Aaron Harang in 2007.

I hate this team.

Legless Phillies

Both Ryan Howard and Chase Utley will play in an extended spring training game in Clearwater today. During last night’s broadcast, Tom McCarthy, a Phillies employee, read a promo for CSN employee Jim Salisbury’s coverage of the rehab event. The Phillies going out of their way to mention both the injury and where to get information seems like a direct response to the all-out assault on the team’s transparency launched by the Inquirer a few weeks back. Good news? The team seems to be more forthcoming. Bad news (for your paper of record)? CSN is the one benefitting.

Lousy Ledes

The Inquirer's Matt Gelb spun an anecdote about Lee winning a chess match against Pete Orr into a joke about how he hasn't won a baseball game: [Philly.com]

But on Monday, Cliff Lee challenged Orr after his regular match with Pence. The two moved the table to the center of the room and played. "He always kills me," Orr said.

A few minutes later, Orr spiked an empty paper cup. Victory came quickly for Lee, meaning he had won a game of chess in 2012 before winning a game of baseball.